'70s-style sideburns: Violation of Army regs?

Mar. 23, 2014
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Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair / Ted Richardson, AP

by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

The general's sideburns are nothing more than a sideshow in the sexual assault trial that roiled the Army and the Pentagon this week.

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair's trial for sexual assault ended Thursday after he he was fined $20,000 and reprimanded after admitting that he committed adultery and mistreated his former mistress. He also pleaded guilty to possessing thousands of pornographic images.

His jail-free sentence enraged members of Congress, including Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who called it a "mockery of military justice." She and others, like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., contend that Sinclair's case proves her point: Sexual-assault cases must be handled by career prosecutors not influenced by commanders.

But a March 4 Associated Press photo of Sinclair in '70s-style sideburns that raised eyebrows among many at the Pentagon. The shot, of Sinclair in profile, shows one of his sideburns jutting down from his beret, sinking toward his lower lobe.